1. Field of the Invention
The present invention is directed to a bill acceptor adapted for mounting on a gaming table. In particular, the invention relates to a bill acceptor which can accept a stack of individual notes in a receiving slot mounted to the gaming table, processes the notes one at a time and pass valid notes through a hole in the gaming table or along the back edge of the gaming table to a cash box located below the gaming table.
2. General Background and State of the Art
Conventional gaming tables located in casinos are generally used to play games such as blackjack, poker, roulette, baccarat, and craps. The table may have an outer periphery containing a plurality of player locations and a dealer's location located generally opposite the player locations. From the dealer's location, the dealer controls the pace and operation of the game including for example dealing the cards, paying winning wagers and collecting losing wagers.
A dealer's responsibilities also include exchanging currency or notes received from a player for casino chips. Generally, when a player wants to exchange currency or notes for chips at the gaming table, the player gives the currency or notes to the dealer. Notes, as used herein, can include local and foreign currency, casino scrip, and casino issued tickets. The dealer counts out and then spreads the currency or notes on the playing surface of the gaming table. The dealer is sometimes required to notify a pit boss that the dealer is exchanging currency or notes. After receiving an approval from the pit boss, the dealer accepts the currency or notes and deposits them into a slot accessible from the playing surface of the gaming table. The slot leads to a channel for transporting the currency or notes from the slot to a cash box located below the playing surface. A plate may be used to push the currency or notes into the slot and ensure that the currency or notes properly fall into the cash box.
The revenues received on the gaming tables are a significant source of income for a casino. Accordingly, the high volume of currency or notes exchanged invites the risks of receiving counterfeit currency or notes. Unlike slot machines, wherein the implementation of integrated bill acceptors in the slot machines has diminished the casinos' risk of receiving counterfeit currency, most gaming tables remain susceptible to this risk. Due to the increased sophistication of counterfeiters and the increasing difficulties in discriminating between authentic and counterfeit currency, the manual or dealer inspection method of accepting currency on gaming tables is inadequate to protect casinos from currency fraud. Also, as the use of casino scrip and casino tickets increases, there is a risk that these forms of revenue could be compromised or counterfeited. Accurate accounting of these alternative forms of notes may require that they be validated upon receipt.
A few attempts have been made to patent the use of a bill acceptor assembly on electronic gaming tables. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 5,775,993 (“the '993 Patent”) issued to Fentz et al. discloses a bill acceptor assembly mounted at each player station located around an electronic roulette wheel. Similarly, in U.S. Pat. No. 5,588,650 (“the '650 Patent”), each player console located around an automated roulette wheel includes a bill acceptor. In both of these patents, a computer, not a human being, directs the game. A player can insert money into the bill acceptor to earn credits at any time, even though the player may not be able to place a bet until the next betting period. Yet, both the '993 Patent and the '650 Patent have two fundamental flaws. First, both patents use traditional single-feed bill acceptors where the player must insert one note at a time into the bill acceptor. The bill acceptors in the '993 Patent and the '650 Patent are not designed to accept multiple notes at one time. At a gaming table, players may start their betting with a large sum of money which, in the configuration of the '993 or '650 Patents, would require each player to feed each note one at a time into the bill acceptor. The effort involved in feeding each note can be time consuming and frustrating, and even more so if the bill acceptor does not accept every note on,the first feeding attempt.
Second, incorporating a bill acceptor into a computerized gaming table does not involve the same difficulties as incorporating a bill acceptor into a conventional gaming table operated by a human being. On the computerized gaming table, a computer using preprogrammed software manages each player's credits, operates the game, calculates and pays out all winnings, and collects any losing wagers. No casino tokens or notes are dispensed until a player cashes out. On the other hand, a gaming table operator has to do all of the functions by himself or herself. In addition, the operator is given the responsibility of watching each player to ensure that he/she does not cheat. Neither the '993 Patent nor the '650 Patent explain or address the many concerns of how to incorporate the bill acceptor into a human operated gaming table. For example, neither patent discloses how the operator would know how much money has been inserted into the bill acceptor. This disconnect in information would prevent the operator from knowing how many tokens to give back to the player.
Accordingly, a system for accepting valid currency and rejecting counterfeit currency on a conventional gaming table would be beneficial to the gaming industry. Such a system would increase the casino's profitability by decreasing the amount of counterfeit currency it may receive. Moreover, a bill acceptor capable of accepting and validating a stack of notes would significantly decrease the delay involved in feeding one note at a time into the bill acceptor.